Question

you are analyzing a sample of a nucleic acid and determine that the sample contains the nitrogenous base adenine. are you able to determine if the sample is dna or rna? briefly explain your answer.

Answer 1

NO

Explanation: DNA and RNA consists of 4 nitrogenous bases. In DNA and RNA adenine, guanine and cytosine are standard nitrogenous bases. The only difference is, in RNA uracil is present in place of thymine. so based on nitrogenous bases, we can differentiate between DNA and RNA based on thymine or uracil.

If uracil is present nucleic acid must be RNA and if thymine is present nucleic acid will be DNA.